UK ISPs Start to Block Sites That Link to The Pirate Bay Proxies

Virgin Media and TalkTalk are among six major UK ISPs that have started to block access to websites that provide a list of Pirate Bay proxies this week. According to a report by TorrentFreak on Tuesday, blocked sites include piratebayproxy.co.uk, piratebayproxylist.com and ukbay.org.

The ISPs are blocking access to these domains as part of the same High Court order that allows copyright holders to block The Pirate Bay. A Virgin Media spokesperson told TorrentFreak that the rights holders “have the authority to change the specific URLS or IP addresses that must be blocked by all major ISPs.”

According to the music group behind the original blocking order against The Pirate Bay, ISPs are not only required to block the illegal sites themselves, but also “proxies and proxy aggregators whose sole or predominant purpose is to give access to the illegal sites,” BPI said in a press statement.

As a report by Wired notes, none of the sites offer stolen files for download or “any other method of actually acquiring content.” The latest move creates a “worrying level of censorship, where sites that do not even host or link to files can be taken down on a whim,” the report said.

To avoid being blocked, some affected sites have moved over to new domains, including ukbay.org, which has migrated to a .co domain for the time being. This method of avoidance has been used by torrent sites themselves. Recently,KickassTorrents.so reacted to being pulled offline by re-launching on a .to domain.

In the UK specifically, pressure has been mounting against ISPs to act against copyright infringers. Last year, a High Court ruling determined that it was an ISP’s responsibility to block sites selling counterfeit goods and pirated content online.

This spring UK ISPs will start sending out warnings to users who repeatedly download pirated material as part of a consumer awareness drive run by Creative Content UK. ISPs will send users up to four warnings per year as part of the Voluntary Copyright Alert Programme.